Basically asserts, HUMAN-LABOR, to obtain their means of subsidence, originally imposed by nature, is the ROOT CAUSE OF HUMAN EXPLOITATION. It results in inequality, injustice, corruption etc. Therefore, along with technological advancement, a gradual reduction in working hours intended, to completely ELIMINATING it with an EQUITABLE Universal Basic Income (UBI) marks the beginning of NO LABOR/WORK COMPULSION on people, the essence of Zero Work Theory (ZWT), for FUTURE HUMAN SOCIETY.

Monday, 11 April 2011

POVERTY: GREATEST CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Subjecting small children to extreme poverty is the greatest “Crime Against Humanity”. The middle class and the above classes who frantically write and agitate when they see violent crimes or sex crimes, remain almost silent when they see the people around especially the children subjected to cruel miserable abject poverty mainly because they have absolutely no fear of the poverty affecting them or their children like the violent crime or the sex crime.

According to the World Poverty Statistics the income gap between the rich and the poor go on widening; 40% of the world population own 90% of the wealth, forcing the majority 60% to live in a meager 10% resource. 20% of the top rich own almost 80% of the wealth while the 20% bottom poor forced to live on less than 1% resources their condition with the rising inflation getting worse day by day.

Around 3 billion people in the world today live in poverty (India ranks among the top) as they can’t even afford their basic necessities like adequate food, shelter, health, education etc. More than 800 million of them including 300 million children go to bed hungry each day subjected to such abject poverty conditions. Its most horrifying fact can be seen in the UN world children poverty reports; ‘around 50,000 people including 25,000 innocent children under the age of 5, DIE each day due to being subjected to gruelling poverty’. It is the ruthless greed of the riches to make more money BY HOOK OR CROOK to maximize their business profit, income and wealth at the cost of robbing the lower-class poor of their livelihood directly results in such a wide income disparity, CORRUPTION and extreme poverty, which finally results in such gruesome deaths of the children.The Governments ruled by the “rich class interests” which includes the well-to-do middle class and above are basically responsible for this greatest Crime Against Humanity.

It is possible to eradicate most of the poverty by eradicating corruption

By providing the poor children and their parents enough money for a decent standard of living thereby ensuring a good future for the children. However the worlds Governmentsmake the public to believe that it is impossible to eradicate poverty like the corruption. It is mainly because there is no political will with the Governments ruled by the corrupt “rich class interest” to do so. In the meantime let me suggest an alternative solution to "lifting people above the poverty line" in the next article below.

Lifting People Above The Poverty Line

(Second article in the this poverty series published on 11th May 2011.)

Extreme poverty is the most serious and horrible of all human problems. Internationally it has been recognized as people “living below the poverty line”. According to most recent (2010) PPP estimates 1.4 billion people in the world subjected to abject poverty, which is having to live less than $1.25 a day ‘. To lift these people above this poverty line, the UN in collaboration with the world Government agencies and leading international organization (NGO’s) engage in many poverty alleviation, aid, development programs however with not much success. Hereby under “IT To Root-Out Corruption” anti-corruption, let me suggest an alternative abject poverty reduction program which can definitely lift everyone in the world successfully above the poverty line.

Every single person in a country (or world) from the moment they are born till they die, rich or poor should be given a monthly sustenance allowance of a minimum above the poverty line amount (say $50 in the Indian context), deposited directly into their bank account, most importantly having the unassailable biometric identity. The Govt. can get all the money required for this program by having this MANDATORY Biometric Identity in all banks as it will prevent all-most-all bogus or fake bank accounts, which in return will significantly stop fraud or misuse of the bank money in benami accounts, Money laundering, black money etc corruptions thus more than enough money for this program . Money directly getting deposited in everyone’s bank account all having biometric identify and brining in every one (rich and poor) under this program will most importantly avoid all kind of discrepancies leading to the corruption that usually happens in every poverty alleviation, aid relief or poor welfare programs. Let me briefly mention only the two most important points of this program in the following:

1). Even though the amount of money given to the rich and the poor under this program is equal, nevertheless in reality compared to their incomes the poorest of the poor (finally the poorest child) will gain the most (say 100%) while the well-to-do, rich will gain the least (say 1 %) or almost nothing! However as the recipients it will make both the rich and the poor equal before it.

2). In a developing country like India the monthly money requirement to implement this program is massive, roughly $60 billion (for roughly 1.2 billion population). Some economist will argue it will financially ruin or bankrupt the entire country within months! However, if you compare it with the national gross monthly income it may fall only between 1% to 5%. Moreover, it will provide the enormous amount of purchasing power mainly in the hands of the poor population resulting in tremendous monthly economic growth, production in the essential commodity sector generate huge number of rural employment. The money will be circulated in and out every month therefore immediately get reinvested rather than remaining as a dead stock.

Before concluding, let me give a simple example of how having a biometric identity in all bank account can totally prevent people from having all their ill-gotten black money valuables assets, deposited under many fake or bogus accounts. Suppose the finger prints of the people taken as their main biometric identity in the bank accounts. Now the main bank computer will regularly investigate if any of the fingerprints matches any other finger prints in the bank account of the entire country (or world) registered under any different persons name and address. If it finds one, its serious investigation conducted and the guilty severely punished this will definitely deter everyone in engaging in all such frauds.